The respiratory protection standard includes a requirement for a medical clearance for required use of tight-fitting respirators and for some specific respirators even with voluntary use.

In my experience, respiratory protection is one of the more common forms of PPE used by employers in the United States. In many cases, employers may decide to use respiratory protection to reduce employee exposures to health hazards without trying to reduce personal exposures using more effective engineering or administrative controls. Because the consequences of being exposed to high concentrations of some chemicals can result in severe health effects or death, it is very important that respirators are properly chosen and worn in the workplace.

OSHA published a respiratory protection standard, 29 CFR 1910.134 in 1998. The respiratory protection standard is designed to help employers establish and maintain a highly effective respirator program when respirators are required to be used in a workplace. To discuss all of the requirements of the standard would take more space than we have in this article. Therefore, I will focus on fit testing and the use of assigned protection factors (APFs) and the calculation and use of maximum use concentrations (MUCs). These are areas where I see some employers struggle with comprehension and implementation.

The respiratory protection standard includes a requirement for a medical clearance for required use of tight-fitting respirators and for some specific respirators even with voluntary use. The medical evaluation is designed to determine if an individual has any medical conditions that might preclude them from being able to safely wear a respirator in the workplace. You would not want an individual donning a respirator and having a heart attack because of the respirator use.

Another requirement of the standard is to perform a fit test prior to the original use of a respirator and annually thereafter. The fit test is designed to determine which type, model and size of respirator properly will fit each individual. An employee using a respirator that does not fit properly can have little to no protection from the hazardous environment present in the workplace. You do not want an individual to don a respirator and think that adequate protection is provided only to have the worker experience a severe health reaction because the respirator is not providing the protection that it was supposed to.

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2021 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.

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